The present invention relates to a game apparatus and especially to a game apparatus having a combination game which uses combination setting members for changing the correct combination. The combination can be set without the players knowing the combination.
In the past, a wide variety of games including guessing games have been provided and these include many types of apparatus for playing games. Typical board games have spinning wheels or dice and the like and typically use cards and have various rules for playing the games. There are also many electronic type games which use computer circuitry including microprocessors and stored memory to play a game on a CRT using joysticks or controls. These type of games are typically used in arcades and may include coin boxes and the like. The present game relates to a combination game in which each player guesses the digits of a combination and, if all of the digits are selected to select the proper combination, a door can be opened or some other indication that the correct combination has been selected. The game utilizes a ball running on selected ones of a plurality of ball chutes with means to select the chute for the ball which cannot pass down the chute to the next selected combination unless the first correct chute has been selected. The ball travels down a series of ball chutes, each one of which can be selected from one of a plurality of chutes and a wrong selection returns the ball without completing the full combination circuit and requires the player to start over.
Prior art U.S. patents showing guessing games or games using balls and tracks can be seen in the Peter et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,245,156 for a game of skill which uses automatic delivery of coins through a passageway and enables the player to affect mechanical settings of the device to various modes of playing a game of roulette or the like. The Dieball U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,764, is an electrical game apparatus of chance which includes a housing and display board using a plurality of display lights arranged to provide random symbols or numerals or letters and which game includes a rotatable mixer switch for varying the operation of the display lights with respect to the corresponding 4 switches. The Promin U.S. Pat. No. 3,610,628 is for a game apparatus having a plurality of number ring assemblies mounted vertically and rotatably on a shaft and each number ring assembly has a hole therethrough so that the assemblies can be rotated to any predetermined position which determines whether the ball is allowed to drop through one number ring assembly and out through a base to indicate a winner. The Pitkanen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,825,265, shows an amusement machine which has a vertically disposed playing surface such that perforated tokens or slugs are propelled upwards so as to descend into a plurality of slots or reservoirs. The Parks et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,531,114 shows an electrical matching game apparatus using a series of electrical switches such that if correct selections are made, an electrical circuit is completed for dispensing tokens. The Kanno et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,899, is a game capable of collecting and then randomly dispensing objects. The Boahn U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,688, is a container disposal apparatus which raises containers to an elevated position from which they can traverse a downwardly inclined chute where a rotatable interrupter plate, positioned in the chute's path, allows the containers to traverse the interrupter plate to trigger a prize dispensing mechanism.
In contrast, the present invention has means for changing the code each time a game is played such that the players cannot view or determine what the new combination is and then the game can be played by rotating dials which determine whether balls will traverse the ball tracks and chutes through the combination setting members to complete a complete circuit to give an indication of a successful setting of the combination.